Mike Raschko

Michael Raschko was born on his parents homestead 4 1/2 miles South East of Lefor North Dakota in a sodhouse, his parents had immigrated to North Dakota from Bakowa, Banat, Austria Hungary, now Romania. He attended rural grade school and continued his education at Assumption College, became Bank President of the Liberty National Bank of Dickinson. He was elected state deputy of the Knights of Columbus and served as Master of the 4th Degree for the state of North Dakota. In 1938, he was elected to the senate of North Dakota and served in that capacity for ten years. In 1949, he sold his interest in the Liberty National Bank and moved to Salem, Oregon. In Salem, he became actively involved in civic and philantrophic organizations and became a realtor retiring in 1972. Kathryn Lefor, his wife, was Mike's number one "cheerleader." She had a life long love of music and would entertain family, relatives and friends playing the piano and her husband singing with a wonderful tenor voice rendering his special love song to her "Lonesome That's All". They were a loving couple and people always commented on how they seemed to have so much fun together. Kathryn suffered a stroke in 1986 and was paralyzed and unable to speak but understanding everything. She died nine years after her stroke in 1995 at the age of 93.